# OPI Fakes?



## Lucy (May 15, 2010)

I saw this post on Lacquerized and it made me wonder.. do any of you have OPI fakes?

I had a look through my own stash and noticed my lincoln park after dark doesn't have the four symbols on the back of it, but then, neither does my friend's merryberry mauve (now discontinued i think) that she bought at a Sally's. and i don't think Sally's would sell fakes.

Anyway here's Lacquerized's guidelines:

*The Front*

When you're looking at the front of your bottle, pay attention to the following things. Make sure the right font has been used and that it is aligned properly, without being skewed. A lot of times you can tell whether it's a fake or not, by looking at the bottom line. The letter L of mL is *always* uppercase and the letter 'F' in Fl is *always* uppercase. Same goes for Oz, the 'O' is *always* uppercase.



*The Back*

There should be a couple of things on the back of the bottle: The address of the distribution centre in The Netherlands and the address of OPI in the US.

Also, there should be *four warning signs*, always in the order you see in the picture. If this isn't the case, big chance it's a fake.



*The Label*

A genuine OPI bottle always has a label on the bottom of the bottle, the only bottles that don't have this are the mini's.

There is in fact, always a double, second layer, if you peel the first one off, you should be able to see it. The first label contains information such as the product name, product code, bar code and the 'Peel Here' suggestion. On the back of this first label you'll be able to find the ingredients. The 2nd label has the product name and code aligned in the center, and no barcode.



*Serial Number*

Real OPI, again except mini's, bottles have a serial number engraved, on the side, towards the cap. You can't really see them that well, but they should be there.

A lot of online sellers make sure you can't read the serial number anymore, by filing it down. But this doesn't mean they're fake.

If the serial number is extremely noticable, good chance it's fake.



*OPI on the Brush*

Genuine OPI bottles will have the brand printed on *one* side of the brush. It isn't that noticable, but if you wipe the polish off, it should be there.

Mini's don't have this though. If you find this logo, and it looks a bit weird, fake!



*The inside of the cap*

Now, this only applies to new OPI bottles, because it appears to be that old bottles are different when it comes to the cap. The inner edge of the cap should be gear shaped, and not smooth.

It seems like older bottles do have smooth insides, so if you're not sure, look up the release date of your polish.



*Ballz*

Now, this is a hard one, because you can't always tell! There are always *two* steel balls in the bottle! If there's more or less, it's fake. If you're polish is quite thick and opaque, it may be hard to spot this, but if you're 'lucky' to have a sheer, you can see this immediately by tilting the bottle to the side.



*The ProWide Brush seal.*

Some OPI bottles come with a plastic seal on the cap, that says "Exclusive ProWide Brush". Not all OPI bottles come with this seal, so if you spot an etailer or eBay seller only selling bottles with this seal, they're bound to be fake!



I saved the best for last, let's have a look at some awesome fakes, I for one think they're great! I wouldn't mind owning them, because they're so unique and funny, and definitely LE ;-).

Natasja was extremely kind to send me some gorgeous pictures of her newly discovered fakes:







OPI - H-and over the Amethyst






source


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## lolaB (May 15, 2010)

That's interesting and very strange. Why make fakes of something so cheap? I'm assuming Ulta carries the real deal, so I'm in the clear lol.

Although, the brush stems didn't always have OPI on them, so unless that's a newer shade, that's not a good indicator.


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## Lucy (May 15, 2010)

i know right? i mean they're not _cheap_ cheap, most people I know wouldn't pay Â£10 for a nail polish..but they're not like chanel handbags or anything! i guess people will fake anything. makes me wonder if there's fake china glaze or essie out there too!


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## Orangeeyecrayon (May 16, 2010)

i had never heard of fakes. I get all my polishes from either Trade secrets or ulta so i am pretty sure they are real but i still wanted to look at them to see.

One of my polishes only had 3 of the symbols that are suposed to be on the back. But it is also a really old polish


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## Lucy (May 16, 2010)

merryberry mauve and lincoln park after dark are also really old polishes, i only have three symbols on mine. the one missing is the 24 months one. maybe back in the day they thought polishes would last forever! and ironically, out of all my OPIs, my lincoln park after dark is the only unusable one. it's all gloopy and gross. i've had it for like 5 years now.


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## Bec688 (May 16, 2010)

There's always going to be slight variations on packaging. I have some older OPI polishes from collections a few years ago who's stickers on the bottom are slightly different from ones from recent times and like Lucy has already mentioned, different symbols. It often depends on when they were made. I believe there's fakes out there, they make fakes of everything these days, you just need to be careful.


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## magosienne (May 16, 2010)

Yes, i don't udnerstand why either, but they make fakes of everything out there.

That's good info, the only thing i will add is my natural base doesn't contain any balls, not that i find that strange it's just a base so i don't think balls are necessary. The store i bought it in has become an official OPI seller, so i'm guessing i can trust it. The rest is bought at Transdesign, so i also assume they sell the real deal.


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## Dalylah (May 20, 2010)

It's scary what people will fake. I buy mine from Sally's or Transdesign


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